


the watcher

by merriell



Series: Koenig [1]
Category: Original Work
Genre: Alternate Universes, Fantasy, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-05-10
Updated: 2018-05-10
Packaged: 2019-05-04 19:02:08
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,054
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14599659
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/merriell/pseuds/merriell
Summary: Pieces of memories involving Henrik Kotov's life.





	the watcher

i.

ever since you were a child, you see shadows.

crystals hung in the air, the light revealing images from faraway places, images that were foreign to you and the people around you. your parents thought you were making up stories when you drew and waxed poetry about places that didn't exist, shadows without source of light, creatures and people that had never been born. when the cockroaches and the demon appeared, they started to think you were insane. but they never had the money to pay the doctors. you stayed in your room, flooding the floors with stories of what you've seen.

sickly, quiet, _crazy_. people, the children in the kindergarten, thought you were that way, even your parents did. everyone did. you were an anomaly, living alone in your imagination. only one person existed, a contrast from you, never sick: strong, brave, selfless. your sister. your henrietta.  half of your soul.

she was always that way, and so was her shadows.

(in a far away place, a girl fell in love with her reflection. _henry_ , she said to the mirror, _i know you're there_.)

 

ii.

sometimes you see shadows of demons. that night, you were seeing a real one.

he was a pale man, skin like the moonlight, teeth like the moon. his eyes were like yours: shining, pale green that lit up in the darkness. you didn't remember fear. you didn't remember waking up. one moment, you were asleep, and the next, you were awake, staring at the man, who were smiling down at you.

"your sister is going to kill you," he said. behind him, the crystals moved. you see a pale and a dark-skinned man standing in shock, in the side. you see her backing away. you see yourself trying to stop her from using her power from your parents - and -

you see your body, rip apart, at her feet. you see her, your dearest, in your living room, looking at her hand, veins blackening, corrupting her body. the demon appeared from the shadows behind you, his arm encircling you. "we can't have that, do we?"

you screamed.

it took five minutes for your parent to rouse. when they arrived, etta had already been in your side, cradling your head on her shoulder. they asked you what was wrong. you didn't answer. in your hand was a paper you've never seen before, containing numbers you never knew. the ink was still wet.

(in a far away place, a boy ran away from his home. he has just lost his mother, and the social service would find no one in his home. there was no money in his pockets, only a name: _heinrich schwartz_ )

 

iii.

the next day, you called the number.

when your sister tried to kill you, her power didn't work. in the corner stalked a small boy, no much older than both of you, cold eyes boring holes on her. on his side was a russian man, whose eyes were fixed on her. but a dark-skinned man, with kind eyes and gentle hands, had his eyes on you, intrigued.

"how did you know?" he asked you. "how did you know that we were coming today? did your parents told you?"

your sister looked at you, defeated. she would hate you. she would hate you.

but she would never be alive without you.

"i saw it," you said, your voice weak. "i saw it happen."

(in a far away place, a big brother protected his little brother, his knuckles bloodied. in his feet was corpses. but he was seeing nothing. he could see nothing but a life without him.)

 

iv.

they put you in a cell. they dubbed it a room, but you called it what it was: a cell. sometimes they unlocked the door. sometimes they kept it locked. but you never escaped, and had no reason to, so why bother?

the cell only had a window, far from your reach. you were tall, but not tall enough, but it doesn't matter. you had more than one window. the crystals moved in the air; and you see your sister, your sisters, your brothers, shadows of you both. you watched over them, relived their stories, their sadness, even once, a sole audience to a meeting between a prince and a reaper.

she would meet him again.

they experimented on you, ask their questions, but your attention was never on them. occasionally, you had long talks with the dark-skinned man who talked to you on that first day, the only person who called you by name in that place. you grew closer over the years. he was the first person who theorized about you not seeing the future - but he never brough the thesis to the owner of the institute. but your interest laid elsewhere.

one day, your sister killed someone. she went to a dark slump of nothingness: she said nothing, she ate nothing, she thought of nothing - she was filled with to the brim with darkness. a woman came after a month. and in a sudden, your sister was filled with nothing - but she talked again, she ate again, thought again.

the woman visited multiple times. one day you followed her shadow.

the next moment, you found a girl with voices like commands.

you thought _ah, there you are._

(across lifetimes, across worlds, you see blood, you see betrayal, you see versions of your sister, you see versions of you, you see versions of the princess you found: a prince, a little brother, a commander. you see a quiet girl with names as blue as the sky from your window: a hero, a gentle heart, the person who never lost his way, the lost boy. you see a glimpse of red hair, laughing - your sister's only friend - and smiled as you see her shadows: a traitor, a grocery boy dreaming of bigger times, a villain.

enterwined.)

 

v.

when the reaper met the princess, you smiled and counted the clocks.

 _tick, tock, tick tock_ -

two years until disaster. six years after, a hedge knight will come back to her princess, and then for you. years after, the princess will die. and then the knight, lost and abandoned, will become a demon, and she would come for you.

and you will let her take you -

 

(but someone will not.)


End file.
